Team:Tuebingen/Public Engagement
Public Engagement
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.- Helen Keller
Public Engagement
One of our main focuses for this years project was to increase our public outreach significantly compared to the previous years regarding our social media performance as well as the organisation and attendance of events on a local level, all over germany and also europe, and getting in touch with scientists and politicians.
Ract! Festival
In order to induce interest in iGEM and differentiated interchange about synthetic biology among students, we gathered at the local Ract! festival, which is hosted in Tübingen every year with about 30,000 visitors. Since it is a mostly political festival for students it was a great opportunity for us to inform and enlighten the visitors and change the general perception about synthetic biology and genetic engineering.
We addressed people of all ages. To introduce kids to biology and raise their interest we build a parcour that abstractedly symbolised the shuttle mechanism of the botulinum toxin into neurons. It turned out to be a huge attraction.
To reach out to adults we passed out flyers for our upcoming public debate and postcards of previous iGEM projects. Additionally, we were happy to answer questions and offer new insights. We were pleasantly surprised how many people sympathised with our believes and the potential of synthetic biology. Nonetheless, we had some negative encounters with opponents of genetic engineering. We hope that we at least encouraged them to reevaluate their opinion. All in all it was a great success.
Public Debate
Following to the Ract! festival we organised a public debate that took place in our university. This event was organised in collaboration with Streitkultur e.V., the debating club of our university. It was a public debate about gene editing on embryos which is a highly controversial topic in today’s society. We had two mixed teams, each with one iGEM member and one member of Streitkultur e.V. that represented the advocates and opponents of gene editing.
After an introductional plea of both sides the audience had the opportunity to ask questions and take part in the debate. They were very inquisitive and we had a lively debate in a friendly and respectful atmosphere.
It was a great opportunity for our team members to improve soft skills concerning confrontations with opposing opinions and how to handle them.
The debate served the purpose of making the subject of gene editing accessible to other students, clarify open questions and create an active exchange of opinions.
This idea is to be further pursued, as one member of the debating club wants to call more attention to the debate of gene editing inside the youth organisation of one of the large German parties (Social Democratic Party, SPD).
Scientific Commitment
In recent years, the relationship to the next generation of scientists has always been an important aspect of our public relations work in our team.
Therefore, we continued our past successes this year and invited six high school students with their teachers and a father to our laboratory.
We showed them standard methods of molecular biology, embedded in the background, to detect Bt corn in corn products they had brought with them.
First, the DNA was isolated, purified and amplified with primers for Bt-gene primers. The PCR products were then analysed in an agarose gel and the results discussed.
Such experiments are an important part of the curriculum of secondary schools, as the equipment is usually not available on site.
We deepen the current curriculum content, which is practically applied and thus no longer remains abstract. We overcome fears of contact with stigmatized genetic engineering.
In addition, our invitation offers teachers a platform for further training in advanced teaching techniques that are up-to-date and applicable.
The feedback on our test day was overwhelmingly positive, so we will continue to implement this format in future iGEM years.
Interview with Boris Palmer
Our aim was not only to raise attention for synthetic biology and iGEM among people but also to connect with politicians in order to address the controversy of gene editing in the public.
We met Tübingens mayor Boris Palmer with whom we had a lively and interesting discussion about gene editing and its image in politics. Apart from that we interviewed him and asked him questions concerning that topic.
Boehringer-Ingelheim
To see how we could possibly expand our project to the future, we organised a visit to Boehringer-Ingelheim which is one of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies with expertise in diseases of the central nervous system, among others. We wanted to see how drugs are developed and produced and communicate with leading experts. Unfortunately, it was only possible to arrange a visit at the beginning of the next year.
Interview with Heilbronner Stimme
We gave the Heilbronner Stimme, a local newspaper, an interview about iGEM and the chances this special project provides. Also, it was an opportunity to teach people about the chances of Synthetic Biology.
Analytica Fair Munich
The analytica fair in Munich was the perfect chance to establish contacts with companies for future sponsorings and collaborations. But we also took the chance to spread the popularity of iGEM among them. We exclusively received interest and positive feedback about our team and project.
HyperpodX, University of Oldenburg
Luckily, we were able to cooperate with many student organisations inside Germany and various countries within Europe which enabled us to further reach out with our ideas, ambitions and the spirit of iGEM in general.
In a meeting with the Hyperloop pod competition team of the University of Oldenburg (HyperpodX) both sides learned a lot about how to organize work and communication inside larger student groups and enjoyed the mutual exchange about two projects from very different areas.
German and European Meet Up
During the German Meet Up in Marburg and the European Meet Up in Munich we had great fun in presenting our project to other iGEM teams, exchanging experiences associated with the progress of our work and listening to intriguing talks.
Meeting iGEM Würzburg
This year our team also had a special connection with another iGEM team: iGEM Würzburg. Two members of this teams, Vic and Annabel went to school together. Nowadays, Vic is a member of our team while Annabel is the initiator of the first iGEM team of Würzburg. Back in time at school they used to compete against each other with their skills and knowledge about biology - and this year they worked together as young scientists to make their footprint in synthetic biology together with their teams.
As Vic took part in iGEM last year Annabel came in touch with the synbio competition and was inspired by this great opportunity for challenges besides normal studying.
So Annabel took the initiative and built the very first iGEM Team of Würzburg. They had mentoring during long skype calls - beginning with basic questions: What's needed for iGEM? How is a team structured? Due to the advice to go to fairs like the Analytica for fundraising it was possible for Annabel to establish a good and working team.
On Meetups like the German and the European Meetup the teams got to know each other and talked about problems within the teams or how to set the focus during the projekt work. Since our team in Tuebingen already mastered many years of igem participation and already overcame various difficulties the team members provided Würzburg with many helpful advice.
It’s great to see, that Würzburg will also go to Boston with their first project and some good results in the backpack.
As science competitions are also a great possibility for stabilizing networks she stayed in touch with Annabel Maisl who is this years team leader of iGEM Würzburg, participating in iGEM for the first time.
Meeting iGEM Oslo
Our meeting with the iGEM Team Oslo was a great opportunity for us to present our project and our ideas on an international level for the first time while getting important feedback. Of course we also took the chance to get to know the city and culture of Norway.
The first day in Oslo was mainly used to introduce ourselves and to get to know the team in Oslo. They offered us a rich program of cultural and scientific exchange. On the second day of our trip we as well as the team from Oslo gave first presentations of our projects. Afterwards we exchanged constructive criticism regarding the projects and its presentations. During the lunch break we also had the opportunity to talk to the PIs and instructors who also gave us valuable tips. This was followed by a workshop with the communications officer where many factors were discussed such as ways of implementing public relations in the field of natural sciences and how to transfer them specifically to our project. This lead to the development of plenty of good ideas that were partially put into practice through projects like the Ract! Festival or our public debate. It was a weekend full of inspiration that created great memories.
Collaboration with iGEM Paris
We are especially proud of our bioinformatics collaboration with iGEM Team Paris: we were able to use our prediction tool BERT (for more information on that please see our Collaborations page) on their project about therapeutic proteins providing them with information about ways to deimmunize their proteins and gaining external validation for our tool. Furthermore, we exchanged knowledge about machine learning as well as molecular simulations. We together are very happy to say that BERTs results are excellent.
The iGEM Team Paris additionally offered their help for another molecular dynamics simulation, which sadly will not be finished before wiki freeze.
In closing, this year we stand out as a team that is excellently connected with other iGEM Teams, companies and public figures and is as present on social media as never before. Documenting and sharing our development and progress on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter we were able to reach iGEM Teams all over the world informing about our project, iGEM and synthetic biology in general.